Please bear with me for a moment, I promise to get to the proper question.
This poll question features spoilers related to the following TV shows: The Sopranos, Mad Men and Preacher. You read on at your own risk
Like most people, I love certain TV shows. Sure, we don’t all love the same ones but we each have our favourites. I devout a significant amount of time and effort into watching a whole show from beginning to end. Considerably more than a movie.
I have written about this in the past. Poll Question 39 asked: “How important is the end of a game?”. I mentioned The Sopranos then and I am still smarting over it 9 years later!
Essentially, The Sopranos and Mad Men had such bad series endings that it spoiled the whole show for me. I don’t expect amazing endings for every show but I do expect fair ones and neither of those shows had them. I am so angry at the way The SOpranos finished, I vowed never to watch another David Chase TV show again (He was the producer, writer and director of the show). And I stand by that vow.
I truly believe that creators have a responsibility to their audience, if there success is due to that audience. For example, if I created paintings in my spare time but just kept them in the basement, that’s fine. But if the bread on my table comes from people buying those paintings then things are different. I am not saying that creators have to create what their audience wants but the symbiotic relationship must be acknowledged by both.
In the case of RTSL, it’s a threeway circle. RTSL depends on modders to release stuff, players depend on RTSL to find stuff and modders depend on players playing stuff.
A coupe of days ago I finished Preacher and was again deeply disappointed. I’ve never read the comics, so it’s not a question of comparisons etc. It’s a question of a silly ending that feels contrived. The excitement I might have been feeling about the questions and possibilities have been replaced with the sour feeling.
Onto Half-Life.
The anticipation we feel for “The Game That Shall Not Be Named” is both exhilarating and heart-breaking at the same time.
Now imagine that it gets released and for whatever reason you don’t buy it immediately (I didn’t get Episode Two until 2 months after it was released). Perhaps, you live in the mountains, perhaps you were on an oil rig or in prison. Whatever. You just didn’t get it.
But then you read the headlines “DON’T BUY HL3” etc.
Even me, the biggest softy there is, say “Don’t waste your money!”
What then? If everybody is telling you it’s terrible will you still buy it?
Are you the kind of person who has to do something when people say don’t? Don’t touch that water, it’s boiling. Don’t touch that wire, it’s live. Don’t buy that game, it sucks.
I suspect, we all will buy it, no matter how bad the reviews are.
We would just have to see for ourselves, wouldn’t we. Which probably means that no matter how good or bad HL3 turns out to be, it will still make Valve millions.
If somebody had told me not to watch the last ever episode of The Sopranos, would I have listened? Unlikely. SHould I have? YES!
Sometimes it’s better NOT to know, than to wish you hadn’t.
If everything you read about HL3 was really bad, would you still play it?
- No, I would take the advice of others. (12%, 9 Votes)
- Maybe, but only if Phillip or my BFF said not to (10%, 7 Votes)
- Yes, how could I not? (78%, 57 Votes)
Total Voters: 73
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Honestly it wouldn’t make much sense for myself to put all this effort and energy into researching the next installment and then not play it.
Sort of like how all those folks on the Duke Nukem Forever message boards still proudly bought the game.
Obviously not. If it was unanimous and not just a couple of tryhards trying to badmouth the game and/or Valve, I would definitely skip it altogether. Better to have no ending than to see it ruined (I’m looking at you, Lost).
I’m not big on TV shows, but as a gamer, there is a big glaring example that I can use here, that will catch approximately ZERO people by surprise.
Growing up and even to this day, I loved, as in legitimately LOVED Duke Nukem 3D. I would waste away my summers playing the game and any expansions that came out for it. One year, I was dragged out Christmas shopping with my mother and sister and found my way into GAME. That’s where I spotted the DN3D Kill-A-Ton edition. This pack included every single expansion, a significant number of third party maps, the level editor and a bunch of other crap like wallpapers and screensavers (remember those?)
Then of course, Duke Nukem Forever was announced. The very first trailer that came out had me so excited I would dream about it consistently. I didn’t have access to the internet back then, so all the red flags about engine changes and studio troubles were unknown to me.
Things fizzled down. Half-Life came and took over my life and so on. Then another trailer in 2000 blew my mind a second time and I was once again hyped for DN:F.
Of course, it eventually died, I was sad, but a little relieved. I had the internet at this point of course, so all the bad blood between the developers and the news of a lawsuit and all those terrible things that kill game studios were well know. Then, Gearbox stride in and slap a release date on it.
I knew it would be bad. It looked dated. The reviews slammed it into the ground.
Bought it on day one.
I tried so hard to enjoy it. I played it non-stop from start to finish. I gritted my teeth and got through it.
Probably the worst game I have ever played…
What I’m saying it, of course I would buy HL3 if it got slammed in the reviews. 😛
Im 99% sure at this point nothing could disappoint me more about half-life 3 than it not being released in the first place.
Of course I would. Even if it’s garbage, I’d still want to know how the story continues. Besides, I’ve waited way too long for it to just skip it. I don’t feel like a bad HL3 would ruin my perception of HL2 as a great game.
“read”
Honestly if I couldn’t pull myself together I’d just watch a gameplay video. It’s usually what does it for me. Then if I was really paranoid about the game itself I would either buy it cheap or pirate it. Either way, I would still get myself to play it.
While other people’s opinions are something to consider, you shouldn’t take them for granted. There will be ALWAYS some jerk who tries to break everything for everyone.
Would still play it, but wouldn’t pay for it.
It’d be a dissapointment at worst. But my opinion ussually differs from opinions of other people, so I guess I’d enjoy it anyway 😀
No, absolutely not.
After so many years of Valve staying silent, I’m going to look at any new game of theirs with the same critical eye I give every other developer. For years they kept quiet as we all twisted ourselves into a knot hoping and wondering what our fabled Half-Life 3 will be like, turning the fandom into a very unhealthy, one-sided relationship. If, after all this time I find out Half-Life 3 will be released (it won’t) and it ends up being just mediocre or bad; I say forget it. I’d like to just close this chapter of my life and move on. It’s obvious I don’t need Half-Life to be a part of it anymore.
I like to go into a game or mod “completely blind.” It’s kind of dumb if you think about it “I can’t form my own opinion better let someone with half a brain tell me what to think and what’s good!” I think that kind of mentality has ruined a lot of indie projects on the internet, but hey “A sheep herder does need his/her flock right?”
Waiting for Half-Life 3 what really even is the point? The Black Mesa Source Team has pretty much shown us that “we really don’t need Valve to create it” and independent team can ultimately create something just as good if not better. I think mainstream corporations that’s their biggest fear that people will release independent creators can make equally stunning or better products then the mainstream can create.
Also just a thought, it would be pretty cool to see the original Half-Life 2 as a mod for Half-Life 1 and it could probably be easier to support as well.